Amiga 500 Rev 5 motherboard - looking for input on floppy emulator options

[zorblon98]

Hello, I have an Amiga 500 with a Rev 5 motherboard and an ICD AdRam 540 memory expansion, and the secondary ICD AdRam board that plugs into the Gary chip.

I recently bought a replacement internal floppy from the Amigastore site ( http://amigastore.eu/en/476-internal...amiga-500.html ) and it is working great, however the drive was definitely not a drop-in-and-go, I had to use spacer washers and do a ton of extra work for this to sit in there properly for the eject button to line up. While the drive itself performs great, I was disappointed in the mounting incompatibility, and also with the Amigastore support (they never responded to my emails explaining the issues).

Anyways that is a whole other story, but the long and short of it is that I am looking to buy either a SD C HxC, or a Gotek floppy emulator. I'd love to have the best of both worlds and somehow to have my internal drive, and an external floppy emulator as a choice. Looking through the forums here and other posts, I'm seeing this is possible with a few options like these in tandem with a Gotek, and connecting to the external drive port:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111606622820...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

However looking at the SD C HxC from Lotharek ( http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=13 ) this looks to do everything I might want as well. But it looks like this would require taking out my existing floppy for it to work, is this correct?

Also looking at the lotharek site I'm seeing a SD CL option that has a nice external case - http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=175 - does anyone know what board is housed inside of this? Is there a SD C hxc in there, or something else?

I have a few pics of my Amiga and internals in case. I am primarily looking to play Amiga 500 games, and also work using Music-X and Sonix for music, which would require saving files. It seems like the hxc would be better for me in that regard, but thought it couldn't hurt to get some input from others using these. I appreciate any input, thanks.

[idrougge]

Amigastore.eu sells a switcher mounted in one of the CIA sockets that lets you swap the DF0/DF1 designation between the internal and external drive.

[puppypc]

Originally Posted by zorblon98

does anyone know what board is housed inside of this? Is there a SD C hxc in there, or something else?

"CL" means it's a Rev. C board in a "Light" case (opposed to the Black case). I have one, and it's right worth it if you can afford better than a Gotek.

If you switch DF0 and DF1 like idrougge suggested, you'll still have to figure out an adapter for the HXC's floppy cable to the Amiga's external plug. If you get a Rev. CL/CB, you'll want something like this. Alternatively, some people get a model without a case and house it inside a gutted Amiga drive.

[zorblon98]

Thank you very much for the replies idrougge and puppypc!

I looked up DF0: Selector on Google and found a DIY example here:

https://circuit-board.de/forum/index...500-1000-2000/

[ Show youtube player ]

It's in German but translates well to English and looks to be pretty straightforward. It looks like it was taken from an Amiga magazine article from 1989, or started from it: http://www.a1k.org/a1000/hardware/bo...otselector.php

I just went to a local electronics shop here in the USA and found two 40 pin sockets plus a switch, it all cost $5.95 USD. Not too shabby! I only mention since it would cost nearly $30 with the shipping for the amigastore option. I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron, I think I will give this a shot this week and order an SD C HxC to fit in my non-working external Amiga drive. Hopefully all goes well, I will be sure to post some photos whenever this all happens.

Thanks again for the help!

[idrougge]

Well, if you're handy with the soldering iron, you can build Ian Stedman's adapter for external usage of the Gotek as well.

[cypher007]

I have a gotek using the HXC firmware and I love it. just need to remember which number is which floppy.

I have mounted mine in an old Cumana external floppy case. it works a treat, didn't have to change any jumpers.

I will have a look at the diy as when I use 1.3ks it probably wont boot from df1:

[zorblon98]

It took a while before I was able to get to this, and thought I'd update. I finished building the DF0 boot selector switch mod, I also ordered a HXC SD C board and cable and just got everything connected today. It's working great, no issues - it's nice to have the option to have my Amiga completely stock, or have it boot to the HXC SD through the DF1: port with a flip of the switch. Just have to put the HXC into an enclosure yet, but I'm happy with how this is working! I added a couple photos of the different stages of putting this together.

[arkpandora]

Thank you for your update and pictures! As my 500 has a boot selector already, you encourage me to opt for an external HxC.

[fordav1]

there's a new kid on the block and it has the features of the HXC and many more (and more will be added) and it's free. Just buy a cheap Gotek and flash it. Problem solved.
https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/releases
It supports a cheap 0.91" I2C OLED display (all in one 128x32 + SSD1306 controller $9), and a piezo speaker just plugs into one of the header pins, no transistor/resistors &/or soldering required for the piezo. It's literally plug (in) and play (games) for ~$20